ESAÕs Maxus 4 sub-orbital microgravity mission launched on 29 April from ESRANGE, near Kiruna in northern Sweden. During the last two years, scientists from five European countries have been working together with the engineering teams from Astrium GmbH and the Swedish Space Corporation in preparation for the Maxus 4 mission, of the European Space Agency. The Maxus-4 rocket carried a payload of seven experiments stacked in five self-contained modules. They were designed to investigate phenomena in fluid physics and materials science that are difficult or impossible to observe on Earth.
The Maxus 4 flight was designed to provide weightlessness to the experiments for the duration of about 12.5 minutes. On its flight, the payload was planned to reach an apogee of 710km. On the down-leg, at an altitude of 6km the main parachute would be deployed to ensure the safe landing of the Maxus 4 payload at a distance of about 80km down-range. It was to be brought back by helicopter, normally within one hour after impac

10:00:00 Maxus luancher with withdrawl of launcher house during countdown
10:07:17 View from Radar Hill, zoom in to Maxus launcher
10:09:05 ESRANGE main building, zoom in
10:10:31 Journalists and PR people on Radar Hill waiting for launch
10:11:49 Antennas on roof of satellite tracking station on Radar Hill
10:11:59 Countdown and launch of MAXUS 4
10:14:06 Recovery helicopter inflight, incl aerial shots of tundra around North Kiruna
10:21:51 2nd recovery helicopter approaches payload, red parachute visable on snow
10:23:30 Man approaches payload and collects parachute
10:25:00 Destroyed payload and parachute, incl red recovery helicopter
10:26:30 Main parachute with large holes, helicopter pilots inspecting payload and parachutes
10:27:15 Service module of payload (telemetry)
10:27:19 Recovery system
10:27:50 Foam module
10:29:30 Damage sustained by main parachute
10:31:27 Helicopter pilot with recovery system
10:32:30 END